Southampton Business School, U. of Southampton, United Kingdom
Management literature has predominantly examined skilled international migrants and, to date, has not widely incorporated another significant migrant group—skilled domestic migrants (SDMs)—who have university degrees or considerable professional work experience and relocate across cities and regions in their own countries. In this qualitative study, we conducted interviews with 35 SDMs working in the information technology industry at Shenzhen, an emerging metropolis in China. We develop a typology of SDMs consisting of six types—opportunist, visitor, go-getter, life-explorer, workaholic, and settler—and delineate each type's unique integration experiences across both career and personal life domains in Shenzhen. Drawing on the psychological contract lens, we further illustrate the essence of the exchange relationship each type established with the city. By doing so, we raise the analysis level of psychological contract literature from organisational to city. Our proposed typology complements existent international migrant literature and advances the multi-disciplinary research on SDMs in cities, facilitating a more inclusive understanding of the migration phenomenon. At a practical level, our findings would help employers, city officials, and national policymakers to better accommodate SDMs and support their career development.
